For someone who was forced to wait until he was close to the age of
twenty-eight before becoming a first-class wicketkeeper in his own right,
Queensland's Wade Seccombe is a remarkably good player. Fraught by the
gloveman's enduring curse of having to shuffle in and out of teams to
accommodate a more senior 'keeper, Seccombe made his debut in 1992-93 but
merely assumed the mantle of understudy to Ian Healy right up until the
veteran international player announced his retirement from the game just
prior to the 1999-2000 domestic season. Technically, he is an outstanding
wicketkeeper. He operates with the graceful, agile movement that
distinguishes most elite glovemen from their peers and is equally at home
(notwithstanding the predominance of pacemen in his native state) on the end
of fast and slow bowling. With the bat, he is a confident and adaptable
performer; he has a particular liking for playing shots square of the wicket
and can be very attacking, yet also has a sound technique and has played
some fine defensive innings at different times. To attest to Seccombe's
talents, it is worth considering that he has already assembled a list of
impressive achievements in the game: he was chosen to be an inductee of the
Australian Cricket Academy in 1993; has been a member of all four of
Queensland's winning Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup sides; has played in each of
two teams to have won Mercantile Mutual Cups; and, in his first full season
no less, equalled Rodney Marsh's twenty-four year old record for the most
number of dismissals effected by a wicketkeeper in an Australian domestic
summer. (John Polack, April 2001)